Blogs United Coverage

I got nuthin' of substance thus yet, so forgive the breeziness of what follows, but my far more disciplined and productive wife has a recap here. I hope it was some consolation for her that we spent much of the social time demonstrating our non-political sides.

Jay of VV has a nice wrap up. After learning the details, I can say Jay's palatial estate in the boondocks is the blogger-dwelling I most want to visit.

Kat of CatHouse Chat also has a good recap. Kat shares some of my hard-edged interests and concerns, so it was pleasantly surprising to discover she is nothing like me, but actually quite friendly.

The Whacked crew seem to have the only photo coverage - good work! (Scroll down). From my initial impression of their collective personalities, I had the idea that must be among the Best Places to Work in the blogosphere.

In reality, though, I'm sure it's more like a sweatshop. That's how it always is.

There seem to have been some controversies at the event, which I managed to miss, either as a result of socializing or daydreaming, so I apologize in advance for the lack of juicy tidbits here.

I can say the whole brouhaha about "liberal" bloggers staying home turned out to be quite the non-issue because the several liberals who attended represented the species extraordinarily well.

Whackjob himself is a frickin' nut and one of the funniest people I've ever met - so, frankly, there simply may not have been sufficient time for many more liberals because we were all so enthralled by the Greg-meister's routine.

And speaking of funny, Johnny Camacho - you know, the 17-year old guy running for county supervisor, and Kenton - the 16-year old whose traffic had it's biggest spike during the run up to the 2005 elections - have this deadpan hilarious schtick going which someone seriously should make a film about. I am most encouraged by these fine gentlemen being liberals now because in order to eventually say "I used to be a liberal" one really should have been a liberal - and they now have that part of the life-puzzle completed.

Vivian Paige is treat to talk with and such a decent person she reminds you the whole "liberal"-"conservative" polarity is a false or semi-useless construct when it comes to actual, well, people sharing views.

Along the same lines, Dan of VB Dems is another among many "liberals" who shares far more of my own beliefs than many of my fellow "conservatives." Disenchantment with the Parties-that-be being chief among these. Those of us who suffered through the Ross Perot implosion share a special kinship.

Switching to the other side of the ideological spectrum ... Jim Bowden was one of the main people I wanted to meet and I was privileged to spend over an hour talking with him. Some good counsel came over the bridge. On top of that, I bought a copy of his book which I encourage all of you to do as well.

I'm Not Emeril is, appropriately, secretive with his recipes. On the other hand, he is a force of nature, so he has that going for him, which is nice.

I met a number of other great folks for whom I do not have links at the ready. (Sorry!) It was great to meet all of you.

Special thanks to the incredible Christopher Newport University people for allowing us to have the conference in their facility. It was top notch in every respect and a huge contribution to the Virginia blogosphere.

Blogs United will be a going concern, apparently, following the overall success of this event. I encourage Virginia bloggers of every stripe to attend the next one. It was a really good time.